


Blue make me rise (when I fall)

by vrepitsals



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Allura (Voltron), Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Blue Paladin Allura (Voltron), Lion Swap, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Red Paladin Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 14:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11853930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vrepitsals/pseuds/vrepitsals
Summary: The Red Lion will always save Keith when he’s in trouble. Even if Lance is currently the one piloting her.





	Blue make me rise (when I fall)

Lance swerves and bites back a grin as Red weaves between the enemy fire and downs two ships with a perfectly-aimed blast.

Three more Galra ships regroup in their place, but it takes a fraction of a second longer than normal. The enemy is wearing thin. Against all odds, they’re winning this fight.

When Allura had called them to the control room for the briefing her expression had been grim. Almost an entire fleet of Galra ships at their doorstep, the Yellow lion out of commission, and five hundred more prisoners to be evacuated before they could leave the system.

Lance had seen Keith’s jaw clench from beside him, and Allura had glanced at him before saying what they all already knew. The surface of the planet was too unstable for the castle to land, and so lions would need to be used to ferry the prisoners up from the planet and hold off the ships, with the castle as support and without Voltron to fall back on.

The Black and Blue lions would hold the most passengers, and thus would be ferrying the prisoners, while Red and Green would try and keep the Galra at bay for as long as possible. 

Keith hung back as they headed to the hangers, and Lance had waited, half expecting Keith to ask to swap lions with him for just one mission. Ask Lance to let him go back to being the impulsive fighter of the group, blowing up Galra ships rather than the leader sheltering innocents from harm.

Lance had never even piloted Black before. It would be a terrible decision, one they may very well look back on with regret. 

If Keith had asked it of him he would have done it in a heartbeat.

Instead Keith had walked forward, stared at Lance for a moment, before placing a hand on his shoulder.

The words which fell from his lips were unexpected.

"You can do it. You’ll be fine.“

They were laced with something Lance couldn’t decipher. He wasn’t sure who Keith was trying to convince.

"Of course we can. One fleet? Me and Red could take them out in our sleep.”

Keith had laughed for a moment, and Lance savoured it. It lit a fire in his stomach. It reminded him what he had to come back to.

Keith stared at him for a moment longer, and Lance saw something in his eyes. Some desire Keith was keeping close to his chest.

“I’m sorry you can’t pilot Red right now,” Lance had said, guessing at Keith’s train of thought.

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Keith said, glancing away, before looking back, “it’s not important. Good luck.”

Lance smiled at him and clapped him on the shoulder before turning and running for his hanger.

“Won’t need it. I have Red and Pidge to keep me safe,” he’d called over his shoulder. The last thing he’d heard as the door shut was Keith’s laugh.

Now, for the first time since the battle began, he actually believes those words.

Red is lightning fast, her feather-light controls responding to him almost before he moves them. The Galra ships continue to fall, some from him, some from a Green Lion who keeps popping in and out of invisibility.

Most of the Galra ships trying to hit her end up destroying each other instead.

Lance isn’t thinking of anything, lining up and firing shots before his mind can even catch up, when Red suddenly jolts under him and turns into a dive.

He freezes for a moment, thoughts whirring through possible malfunctions and their solutions, when he feels overwhelming protectiveness surge through their bond, and realises that Red knows exactly what she’s doing.

He all but gives up control, swerving only to avoid laser blasts that Red, in her single-minded focus, probably would have ploughed right through.

He’s expecting some sort of natural disaster when he gets close to the planet’s surface, of Keith having sacrificed himself to save a prisoner from a landslide, or from falling from one of the loose plates of rock into the boiling mantle below.

Instead he comes face to face with a Galra ship, preparing to fire at a group of helpless refugees, and Keith, standing in front of them, arms reflexively outstretched as if to shield them from the blast.

He doesn’t need to, because the Galra ship blows up before it can react to the Red Lion now standing between it and its prize.  

However, he can hear the atmosphere begin to vibrate with the whirrs of engines, and knows that the reprieve will be short.

He scowls at the approaching ships, and takes out a couple while yelling into the communicator.

“Keith! How many more prisoners are there?”

He can hear some static on the other end, and scattered muttering, when Keith answers.

“These are the last of them. Allura is loading the others. The Black Lion is just over these hills on more stable ground. You can provide cover while we get there.”

Lance glances at the swarm of Galra ships gathering and swears. He leaves the cockpit, running down the ship as Red continues firing behind him.

When he opens the door he can see Keith and about thirty prisoners. It’ll be a squeeze, but he thinks they’ll fit.

“No can do,” he says, grinning at Keith’s scowl, “I’m giving you all a ride. Get in.”

Keith moves to protest, but Lance can see the fatigue of the prisoners, and the fear in their leader’s eyes.

“Pidge can’t deal with the fleet alone-“

“Pidge! Hunk! Coran!” Lance yells, cutting him off “How are you going up there?”

Lance hears a whoop from Pidge and a far off explosion, and takes that as his answer.

The prisoners have already boarded the ship, so he grabs Keith’s arm and yanks him inside, door closing behind him as he goes.

It’s sitting in the pilot’s chair, Keith behind him and thirty refugees looking at him as a saviour when the full weight of what he’s doing hits him.

He’s completely focused on the ships now multiplying around them. There are more than he can remember seeing up in the atmosphere, and now he’s alone. 

The Galra must have been hiding out of reach from their sensors, sneaking in from the other side of the planet, setting a trap for the lions at their most vulnerable. He estimates he can hold them off for minutes at most.

All the good feelings he had have seeped away.

“Allura was moving some excess prisoners to the Black lion when the ships attacked. She won’t be able to get back to Blue alone, you’ll have to pick her up when you drop me off.”

Keith behind him is tense, hand clenched on the back of Red’s chair. Lance is sure he’s aware of what he’s about to say.

“Keith buddy,” he says, swerving around a shot and sending one right back, “we may not even have enough time to make one stop, let alone two.”

Keith winces as a laser grazes Red’s side from behind. Their company is getting creative.

“I know, but we’ll have to.”

Lance grimaces, boosting up Red’s rear shields, and cutting a path through the ships as quickly as he can. A laser flash cuts across his vision and his mind jolts. 

“I think I have another idea,” Lance says, a grin spreading across his face.

“Allura,” he waits for her to respond before continuing, “see if you can get Black off the ground and get back to the castle. Keith and I will pick up Blue on our way through.”

He waits, tense for a few moments, fighting with half a mind as he waits on Allura. 

If this doesn’t work they’re screwed.

“We’re in the air,” breaks through the comms, and Lance breathes a sigh of relief. Behind him, he can hear Keith do the same.

“Take out any ships you can on the way but focus on getting to the castle as quickly as you can. We won’t be far behind,” Keith says, and just to prove how in sync they are, when Lance gets up from the controls without warning, Keith slides in and continues firing without any break in momentum.

They really are a good team.

Lance pats Keith on the shoulder.

“Try and get me as close to Blue as you can, but don’t stop moving,” he says, and Keith nods at him with a grin.

Lance pauses, and hears Red’s purrs in the back of his mind.

“Welcome home buddy,” he says to both of them, before moving to the exit.

He tells the refugees around him to hold on, and waits for a moment before opening the hatch.

From below, still a distance off, he sees the familiar blue force field, and his heart soars.

He loves Red, he really does. They work well together, he feels like fire when using her controls.

But Blue is home.

Keith gets them closer than Lance knows he could, faster than Lance thought was possible. Keith and Red operate without a second’s hesitation, an extension of each other.

Lance knows one day he could probably achieve that connection with Red.

For the first time he realises he doesn’t particularly want to.

And then there’s no time for thinking, because he’s launching himself out of a moving alien space ship.

Using his boosters to make himself faster, a harder target to hit.

“Blue! Go long!” He screams, laughing. He can feel Blue’s joy as she realises who he is.

The Galra ships don’t even have time to see him before he’s ploughing right into and through the blue force field.

The Blue lion reaches her head up and catches him in one deft motion, softening his fall even as he tries to break.

The prisoners on the ship stare at him, unsure if he’s the devil or their messiah.

“Change of plan,” he says, grinning, brushing himself off as he moves to the cockpit, “I’m getting you all out of here.”

Blue’s controls are a familiar current under his hands. He knows the exact layout of this river. His bones feel which forks to take.

The Galra ships surrounding them all go up in a perfect ring of ice.

With three of them in the air, and elation still coursing through Lance’s veins, picking off the remaining ships almost seems trivial.

There are more Galra fighters than they’ve ever faced before without a full team, without forming Voltron.

The ships just keep falling and falling.

He and Blue are untouchable.

He can still feel Red’s determination and laughter through the haze, and through her, right at the edge of his mind, he can feel Keith, his emotions perfectly mirroring Lance’s own.

Fire and ice wreak destruction across the battlefield.

Ship after ship going down with less than a thought. Less than an effort.

Blue feels like a cat playing with a mouse.

Then, almost from another world, he can hear Pidge through the comms.

“I know you both are excited to be back in your lions, but can you maybe focus on getting to castle so we can get out of here?”

Her exasperation rings clear. He can’t think to fault her.

“Right, sorry Pidge. Be right there.”

Blue hums as she cuts through the straggling ships, and Lance breathes a sigh.

He knows there’ll be some light scolding for the delay when he gets back to the castle, probably outnumbered by praise for his quick thinking.

Keith will berate him for being reckless.

For once, Lance won’t be able to throw the phrase back at him.

But the hand on his shoulder will be warm.

And the lion at the end of his connection will be a clear summer sky and a gentle stream.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written pre-season 3, but I found it actually held up better than expected. I love the concept of a lion swap, for like five minutes, until they all go back to their original positions and Allura pilot's Black (until they find Shiro again). 
> 
> This was written in response to a tumblr ask.


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